We’re living longer than ever.

And the increase in longevity is largely attributable to dramatic decreases in deaths from heart disease, cancer, and stroke. Guess what? Those are the three diseases the public health nannies tell us are most closely linked to obesity. If we’ve been getting fatter for 25 years, shouldn’t we be seeing at least the front end of this looming disaster by now?

Every demographic group is living longer, and though this article draws attention to the gap in life expectancy between black and white, that gap is actually narrowing, even though blacks are getting fatter at a faster rate than whites.

The only diseases to see increases in deaths were diseases associated with old age. And that’s not surprising. We have to die of something, right?

Let’s sum up: We’re healthier than we’ve ever been, largely because of the prosperity brought by the premium we put on economic and personal freedom. But as we get healthier, we’re growing more and more tolerant of restrictions on our freedom imposed in the name of protecting our health.

I think the kids call that “irony.”

This entry was posted on Monday, February 28th, 2005 at 5:30 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.